West Texas Tennis Classic reels in top pros for 2015

By Oscar LeRoy | oleroy@mrt.com

Published 5:39 pm, Thursday, May 28, 2015

Another unique tennis event is coming to the Bush Tennis Center in September.

The West Texas Tennis Classic — featuring Davis Cup team members John Isner and Sam Querrey, along with the doubles team of brothers Mike and Bob Bryan — will be held at 3 p.m.Sept. 26 at the Bush Tennis Center.

Organizers of the event are hoping that the event will not only showcase great tennis, but will also be great entertainment, as live music will be provided by the Bryan Brothers Band after the competition.

“The way the event can be successful is to make this a community event,” said Tim Stallard, the president of PROLINK Live, which is helping organize the event. “We really want to embrace the entire tennis community. We have a great lineup of players.”

Stallard, who is a graduate of Odessa Permian and who also played tennis at Midland College, said they are also hoping to have wheelchair players, high school players from around West Texas and college players from across the state.

“It’s really a celebration of tennis,” Stallard said.

The identical-twins Bryan brothers have won more than 100 ATP Tour titles, including multiple titles at the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, French Open and the Australian Open. In 2012, the Bryans won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in London.

“Our plan is to build this around the Bryan brothers, who are great ambassadors of the game,” Stallard said. “They can reach out and get just about anyone to come to an event. This year we got the Davis Cup team, next year we could bring (Andre) Agassi, (Pete) Sampras, Sloane Stephens, other players.”

Isner is currently the top-ranked American in the world at No. 16 on the ATP Tour rankings.

Querrey has won seven ATP Tour singles title and has been ranked as high as No. 17 in the world. He also served as a member of both the U.S. Olympic and Davis Cup teams.

Tickets are $35 for general admission and $75 for reserved seating and they will go on sale to public at 9 a.m. June 8 and can be purchased by going to the website at www.westtexastennisclassic.com.